1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device or construction for arranging a wiring harness in a door hinge portion of a vehicle and is particularly designed to facilitate an operation and prevent the entrance of water.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A door hinge connects a body and a door of a vehicle to permit opening and closing of the door. A prior door harness may be arranged from a door side to a body side and may be connected with an instrument panel harness (hereinafter, "IP harness") at the body side. Alternatively, the prior art IP harness may be arranged from the body side to the door side and may be connected with the door harness at the door side.
Conventionally, in the door hinge portion, the door harness is arranged in substantially the same position as a hinge point along the horizontal direction, but is displaced therefrom along the vertical or height direction. Thus the prior art door harness only twists without extending or contracting as the door is opened and closed. The above twisting is taken up by the twisting of the wiring harness.
A prior art door harness with a wiring harness arranged at the hinge point is shown in FIGS. 29 and 30. In this prior art, a hinge H for connecting a body C and a door D is mounted substantially in the middle of an end surface 1a of a door panel 1. A door harness D.multidot.W/H is arranged inside the door panel 1 and is taken outside the door D through a through hole 1b formed in the end surface 1a. It takes time and labor to arrange the wiring harness inside the door panel 1 and pass it through the through hole 1b.
Further, a weatherstrip 2 is mounted on the door D to prevent the entrance of water. Since the weatherstrip 2 is mounted more toward the passenger compartment than the hinge H, the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H is located more away from the passenger compartment than the weatherstrip 2. Accordingly, the weatherstrip 2 cannot fulfill its water preventing function at the location where the wiring harness is arranged, necessitating a water preventing construction for the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H. In view of this, a conventional practice has been such that waterproof grommets are mounted on the holes formed in the body C and the door D for the arrangement of the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H and a certain measure is taken to make the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H waterproof. However, such a practice is costly and cumbersome.
The above problem can be solved by arranging the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H more toward the passenger compartment than the weatherstrip 2. However, in such a case, the position of the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H is displaced from the hinge point along the horizontal direction. Thus the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H needs to be extended and contracted when the door D is opened and closed. In other words, the wiring harness to be arranged in the door hinge portion is required to have both an extendible/contractible function and a twist take-up function.
A construction in which a wiring harness is arranged more toward the passenger compartment than a weatherstrip is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8(HEI)-48146. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 31 and 32 of that reference, a corrugated duct 4 for covering an air conditioning duct is mounted between a side cover 3 of an instrument panel and an inner surface 1c of a door opposite to the side cover 3, and a wiring harness D.multidot.W/H that is spirally to have a margin length is arranged inside this duct 4.
However, since the spiral wiring harness D.multidot.W/H is arranged inside the corrugated duct 4 in the above construction, several problems may occur. For example, when the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H extends in the center of the corrugated duct 4 as shown in FIGS. 33(A) and 33(B), the corrugated duct 4 and the spiral wiring harness D.multidot.W/H are allowed to extend and contract in a normal manner. However, if a part W of the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H enters a recess 4a of the corrugation of the duct 4 as shown in FIG. 34(A), the duct 4 cannot contract. If the door is closed in this state as shown in FIG. 34(B), the duct 4 and the wiring harness D.multidot.W/H may be damaged by being jammed between the door panel 1 and the side cover 3 and, in a worst case, the wire may be cut. Additionally, the spiral wiring harness D.multidot.W/H is not necessarily constantly restored to its specific configuration after the extension or contraction. If the outer diameter of the wiring harness becomes larger than the inner diameter of the corrugated duct 4, the corrugated duct 4 is destroyed and cannot contract any longer. Furthermore, the corrugated duct 4 is exposed to the passenger compartment, and may be deformed by an external force. In such a case, the spiral wiring harness D.multidot.W/H located inside may enter the recess 4a of the duct 4, and accordingly may be jammed between the door panel 1 and the side cover 3 as described above. Finally, when the door D is opened and closed, a force to extend and contract the corrugated duct 4 is needed in addition to a door opening/closing force, disadvantageously making the door heavier for a driver or passenger to open and close it.
To overcome the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wiring harness arranged at a radial distance from a rotation point of first and second elements that are rotatable and/or movable with respect to each other, and in a position which is more toward a passenger compartment than a hinge point and preferably more inward than a weatherstrip, to facilitate an operation and to prevent the entrance of water.